Why are attachments in Outlook not opening to my default/desktop app, only as a preview in Outlook, when updated to Windows 11?

Anonymous
2023-04-27T12:21:33+00:00

I have a few users who recently switched to Windows 11 asking why attachments from outlook won't open on their desktop apps, only as a file preview in Outlook. My users are trying to move through a lot of communications at once, so needing to manually save and reopen the files on their desktop apps is clunky and adding inefficiency their work. The files they need to open also need to be manipulated, so leaving them in Outlook preview won't cut it (approvals, highlights, etc.). Short of reverting my users back to Windows 10, I have not found any other question thread or app setting that works to adjust this.

On Windows 10, double left-clicking an attachment in Outlook pops the "Opening Mail Attachment" window then allows me to open in my default viewer (e.g. a .pdf file will open in Adobe on click for me); in Windows 11, "open" and "always ask before opening this type of file" not selectable (grayed out). I can "save" the documents to my desktop then open them in the default viewer in Windows 11, but not open on click as before. Sorry for not having screen shots - pictures were not loading.

To my knowledge, here were no changes besides updating to Windows 11 (no policy change, no settings change, trust center is the same, etc.).

Outlooks performance with attachments on Windows 10 is much more intuitive and useful to us. What do I need to change to allow users updating to Windows 11 the same performance, or what could be causing this feature of Outlook to not work the same on Windows 11?

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Files, folders, and storage

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-11-08T17:14:03+00:00

    I think MS has actually patched this. SO if you actually Double click the attachment, it does the same as your work around. It will open in whatever App you set as default

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-11-08T17:06:00+00:00

    I think I found a workaround! I just made the mistake of choosing to open attachments in Outlook (New) and clicked "Always" and I couldn't find a way to change it back.

    Instead of opening the attachment, save it to your desktop. Right click on it and select "choose another app." Select the app you want and click "Always." The default should revert back when you go to open the attachment from your email.

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-10-28T19:19:54+00:00

    I found another post that answered this question - the MS Moderator replied with the below:

    "This is a known limitation of the New Outlook app, and unfortunately, there is current no solution to this issue. The preview feature is a default feature of New Outlook, and it cannot be disabled. However, you can still open the attachment in your default Windows app by downloading it first and then opening it from the Downloads folder."

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  4. Anonymous
    2024-09-28T01:49:48+00:00

    I can't even get a docx file to open in Word. I can only see a preview with no functionality. Can print, can't edit...nothing. Microsoft is about to be replaced here....

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  5. Anonymous
    2024-09-06T17:38:12+00:00

    Eventually I had sync issues of sending and receiving emails while using the new Outlook. I tried going into the help menu and clicking the button about going back to the old outlook version, but it did not work. An IT guy who works for my company was trying to fix my sync issues and I told him that it won't let me go back to the old version. He corrected me and said, go to the search bar on windows home screen and search for Outlook. After we did the search, 2 versions of the app showed up and I opened the old version and it let me revert back to using that version, and life was good again.

    I recommend doing this if you are frustrated and thought you couldn't go back to the old version that worked beautifully. Hopefully this helps some people out. Good luck

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